Today, many entities must create and manage complex data storage centers capable of storing and accessing hundreds of terabytes of data (e.g., text, image, and video data) that are generated and consumed every day by their users. These complex data storage centers may also need to create and store duplicate copies of this data for disaster-recovery, testing, regulatory, or other purposes. To cope with these storage needs, existing data storage centers often have hundreds or thousands of petabytes of storage capacity.
As needs for storage capacity increases, storage-system providers have attempted to meet these needs with storage systems having higher levels of storage density. In some cases, high-density storage systems simply have more storage drives packed into their chassis than their lower-density storage-system counterparts. As more and more storage drives are incorporated into a typical storage-system chassis, the task of cooling the storage drives may become more difficult. Typically, the operating temperature of each storage drive within a storage-system chassis must be maintained within a specific operating temperature range. A typical rack-mounted storage-system chassis may contain many rows of storage drives that are cooled by air that passes through the chassis from the front of the chassis to the rear of the chassis. Unfortunately, the temperature of the air may rise as the air passes by each row of storage drives in the chassis. As such, a typical rack-mounted storage-system chassis may require a large airflow to ensure that each storage drive in its most rearward row of storage drives is maintained within an appropriate operating temperature range.